A Quakers Sermon: PREACHED AT THE Bull-and-Mouth MEETING-HOUSE, In St. Martins-Le-Grand, London.  
On Sunday the 16th. of Nov. 167●.  
Taken from his Mouth in Short-hand by an Indifferent Person.  
Printed in the Year, 1674.   

A Quakers Sermon.  
FRiends! there is a Word that has sprung up in my heart since I came into this place, I say Friends a testimony I have on my Spirit to bear forth to all ye my friends in this our Day, and this our Age, and this our Generation, ye whom the Day spring from on high hath visited; To whom the appearance of the Eternal power, and the living waters of Salvation have been manifested to you. I am stirred up in the Bowels of the Eternal Love of God, and in the dread of the Divine power, which is now upon my Spirit, and the word on my heart is this.  
Let your moderation be known unto all, ye I say, and witness unto you in this our Day, let your moderation be known unto all men, and let all Nations, Kindreds, Tongues, and Languages submit unto this truth of the Eternal God, who is risen up, and even now arising to destroy all gainsayers, and the Generation of the stiff-necked and Rebellious, to consume with the Lightning of his presence, with the breath of his Nostrils as with a Whirlwind, and to sweep the earth with the besom of his terrible vengeance; 'tis easily said Friends, easily, soon said. Let your moderation be known to all, but I witness to you all that hear me this Day in the Spirit of the Eternal God, that there is much, very much in it, your ●oderation! I mean when I so say, not only that you should not fling squibs into our Meeting-House,( or at least just by the Door) nor only that you should be sober whilst you are in our Meetings, though 'tis better to be sober there, than not at all, but I say that you should be possessed with a spirit of moderation, and wait under the awe and Dreadful sense of Gods Love, for I have another word given in to me this day, which is, that God is Love, I say that the eternal God is Love. The created World my friends is like a civil family, now in a well ordered family, you know the master is to order all things ●o I say my Friends; God hath wisdom to order all, and a Dreadful power to punish all, and if any be hardy and stiff-necked he will correct them in his wrath, & level the hills and plain the mountains and bring the haughty low, he hath set his witness, his eternal light that leads into all truth in your hearts, which sheweth man his thoughts, and suddueth and rooteth out all evil, and establisheth perfect Righteousness, but how is it friends that all come not into the obedience of this guide? wisdom 'tis recorded hath lift up her voice, she hath cried, therefore she is not silent, yea even in the corners of the streets the most public places, why is she not heard? I will tell thee: 'Tis because men and women are hardy and stiff-necked, they will not hear, as it was said of old, so may it be said of our Age and our Generation, all the day long have I cried to a people stubborn and perverse, that would none of my reproof, so friends I say, Christ in the flesh in that day as we red, said, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy Childen as the Hen gathereth her chickens, but ye would not. Now my Friends, how doth that creature the Hen gather her Chickens, when a storm or bide of prey cometh? she does not hid 2 or 3 and and leave the rest 7 8 or 10 or the like, exposed to the violence of the tempest, or bide of pray, but she gathers them all, shelters them all, would preserve them all, so I say my friends the eternal Love of God is an universal Love, 'tis to all the works of his creation, to all the Sons and Daughters of men, and in the strength and power of the everliving God I do declare that the very Hen and the very Chickens shall rise up and witness against that narrow-sould, straitlaced Generation of Men in our day, that wickedly talk of an eternal predestination of many thousands necessary to be damned, do what they can, and others that are predestinated to be saved do what they will, oh horrible Doctrine, why then do you persecute for Religion, fill Goals with the Innocent, and die the face of the earth with blood and slaughters, and cruelties, and butcheries, if some men are destinated before they are born to be damned, and others to be saved, do what they or you can; I do this day my friends witness against this wicked principle, and bear my Testimony for the universal Love of God, as it is written, Oh Israel thou destroyest thyself, but with me there is help; and I do declare friends this Day that we travail and are in travail for all mankind that all may be brought to mind and see that which brings them out of the slavery, and out of the bondage, and out of the sin, and out of the Death; but there is a perverse Generation, men of corrupt minds that have forsaken their first Love, and returned to the flesh pots of Egypt, which withstand and gainsay our Testimonies, and resist and blaspheme the holy spirit, and these with noises and clamours, and outcries, and lies, and slanders, speak evil of us, and of the ways of God, which they have not known, nor indeed can know in that state, for they are sealed from their eyes. And these I say friends living in and under the outward form, and outward profession, taking up the words of good men recorded in Ages by past and imitating those things which they find recorded to be done by them, without the life, and the power, and the sense, and the feeling, and the vital experience which those good men enjoyed. These men of notion I say are risen us, and would needs unchristian us for not adoring those outward insignificant Forms, when in truth themselves are no Christians for that they are wanting the life life and the power. For this friends; in the power and by the authority of the eternal God, and in his fear & dread I do declare, that it is not barely the professing or practising the outward words or Ordinances contained in the scriptures of truth from one end of it to the other that will make any man or any woman a christian, mistake me not friends; I will say it again, Tis not the outward Letter contained from the beginning of Genisis to the end of the Revelations, nor the imitation or practiseing of any or all the ordinances, institutions, and the like, which are there mentioned and recorded to have been done by the good men in that Day in the infancy of christianity, as they found a freedom in themselves, and their spirits drawn forth, I say friends, 'tis not the bare profession and practise of these things will make a christian, but the internal power and the sameness of the Life, and the manifestation of the same spirit, when we come to witness what we red in the Scriptures, and find and feel the same effects, and the same operations, and the same influences, and the same powers, then the representations cease, and the lordships vanish, and the shadows fly away, and the imitations are at an end, and then the man is enlightened with a true light that can never be extinguished, and finds rest and joy and peace, and is acted, guided and lead in all his sayings, and all his doings by that spirit, that is blessed for ever; why then( as it was said in ages bypassed) do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing to oppose thus the Lord and his anointed, the appearance of the Christ of God in the hearts of his servants, we do not as they slander us, Deny the Scriptures of truth, for we have a great value to the things therein recorded, and do witness the same thing, and do Declare that we are lead and acted by the same spirit which gave them forth, therefore I say friends, they are slanderers and liars. And in the authority of the Dreadful God I do Declare and witness in his everlasting Love; That the eternal God will suddenly and in very short time rain nets and snares on all those that oppose this appearance of the eternal Son of his love in our mortal bodies at this day, & in this our generation, and that he will pour out his fierce wrath upon the Land of graved Images, and upon all the pleasant pictures, upon the shadows wherein you Delight, and the Ordinances that you make your refuge, yea he shall press the Vine of Sodom, and the grapes of Gomorrah, and give the dregs thereof to them to Drink; I say friends the Lord is risen, I witness him to be risen and rising in this our Day, a Day of blackness and trouble, a Day of reproach and blasphemy, to confounded with swift and eternal Destruction, all the Rhabsheka's, Railers, Reproachers, Revilers, Daters, Boasters, Vapourers, Slanderers, liars, and Blasphemers, whose throat is set wide open in this our Day, like a Sepulchre against the truth of God, that seed of the old read Dragon that vomits forth a flood of slander to Drown if possible the woman in whom the Child Jesus is formed, I say if possible, for friends it is impossible, and by the spirit of the Dreadful God I do now this Day declare and witness that no weapon formed against us shall prosper; Oh what a noise, what a tumult there is abroad, paper upon paper, writing upon writing, how are their wicked wits, how is their Devilish Sophistry, and all the wisdom of the bottonles pit set on foot and employed, I say friends at this Day all the Engines of Hell are made use of, to traduce the innocent, and misrepresent truth, just as the heathens in ages bypassed, put the innocent Christians of that Day in beasts skins, and then baited them as lions, and Wolves, and tigers, and the like, but friends I say and witness the council of these Achitophells shall be brought to nought, God will make bare his Arm and deliver us, all their writings shall be consumed, and their policies blasted, some are much pleased with noise, and writings have of late Days and times been so frequently set forth, that people look for them, and Delight to see what the news is, and they do it merely to please silly creatures with news, but as it was said of old: Dust is the Serpents food, so all this their libeling is of the Serpent, and shall with him be cast into the Lake of Divine Vengeance and perdition.  
And therefore now my dear Friends, who have tasted of the Cup of Salvation, it is upon my Spirit, and the Eternal God hath set it upon my heart, to declare and witness unto you in this day, and I do in the fear of the Eternal God, and the sense of his everlasting love, charge you all this day, that you be silent and still( as it was said in Ages bypassed, when the Israel after the flesh was in great calamity, the deep waters before, and the cruel Egyptians pursuing behind) then I say, Friends, what was the Word of God in such a day? Be still, and you shall see the Salvation of God: So I say, Friends, I witness the same word to you in this our day, Be still, be low, keep in the Valley, go not forth of yourselves, then shall you see the Salvation of God, then shall you sit in peace and quietness, in the possession and enjoyment of the Love and Salvation of God, refreshing your souls in the midst of all those storms, and you shall remain in rest and security, whilst all these Tempests blow over your heads. Therefore I say, Friends, be still, go not forth of your Tents, wander not into the Reasonings and the Arguings, into the Speculations and vain Imaginations, seek not to Comprehend the Incomprehensible, but be low, and humble, and meek, and wait upon that which leads into all truth. If the Wicked entice thee, do not reply, spend not your time in vain Arguings, least you be seduced and ensnared, yea, I say, Friends, answer not their ensnaring hell-bred Questions, I profess, Friends, were it not for the sake of some weak spirits, who have some breathings after the Lords manifestation and appearance, who are yet in the dawning, and grope in tho Twilight, and their souls may easily be shipwrecked and perverted by the scandals cast on the Eternal Truth of God, which we not only profess, but possess, enjoy, experience and witness unto our unspeakable joy and rejoicing: I say, Friends, were it not for the sake of such tender blossoms, and weak in the Faith, I should not judge it necessary to appear, or to take notice of all those Tumults raised by Sons of Belial, and Men of Corrupt Minds, nor their Heathenish Arguings and Sophistries, which the Eternal God will confounded and destroy, with the authors thereof, and all that take part therein. And so I say, Friends, be still, stir not out of your Tents, abide in the Love of God, search not, wander not, strive not, but wait and be silent, then shall you see salvation from God, and feel a Well spring of life arising in your hearts, and refreshing your Souls, as an Over-flowing Stream in a Thir●ty Land.  
FINIS.